Electricity generating and storage system



Sept. 2 1924. 1,507,300

J. a. REPLOGLE ELECTRICITY GENERATING AND STORM !v SYSTEM Filed larch 31'1920 5 3% 2s 0 54 42 H10 O a) g m 54 v Patented Sept. 2, .1

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES B. EEPLOGLE, F DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOB- TO DECO-LIGHT CODA-NY,

OF DAYTON, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

ELECTRICITY GENERATING AND STORAGE SYSTEM.

Application filed Karen 8!, 1920. Serial No. 370,235.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JAMES B. Rarnocus, acitizen of the United States, and a resident of Detroit, county ofWayne, and State of ti Michigan, have invented certain new 'and usefulIm rovements in Electricity Generating and tom e Systems, of which thefollowing is a ful clear, concise, and exact descri tion, such as willenable others skilled in in e art to which the invention relates to makeand use the same, reference being made therein to the accompanyingdrawings, which form a part of this s cification;

The present invention relates to a system of generating and storingelectricity wherein an internal combustion engine is automatically setin operation to cause the generation of electricity for charging aattery whenever the electrical condition of the latter demands suchaction, and wherein the englue is shut down when the electricalcondition of the battery is restored to normal; and its object is toinsure better starting and running conditions, in so far as thevaporization of fuel is concerned, than has been attained heretofore.

To this end the invention provides automatic means so constructed andarranged as to heat the fuel or fuel mixture when the engine is beingcranked for starting purposes. Again, the invention provides manuallycontrolled means superposed on the automatic engine starting means andavailable for starting the engine, together with means automatica 1y 0crating to heat the fuel or fuel mixture un er such conditions.

lay the use of anelectric heater operating in e general manner statedthe desired results are attained with a minimum expendi- 4 ture ofenergy, but it is possible to employ other types of relation.

In the drawings: Fig. 1 shows t e complete circuit, the va- 4 riouscomponent elements or devices appearing diagrammatically. These featuresof construction otherwise than the heater and heater circuit aresubstantially the same as described and covered by application for 0 U.S. Patent, Serial No. 298,160 filed Ma. 52, 1919 by James B. Replogleand John a. Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic sectional view heaters in the samegeneralshowing the preferred relation of the heater to the carburetor.

In order to understand the resent invention, it will be necexa to re erto the main constituent elements 0 the apparatus as a whole, that is,the basic elements covered by the above identified applicatio as well asthe additional and modifying ieatures entering more particularly intothe present case. These are:

1st. The storage battery (1).

2nd. A temperature compensated voltage control device, a thermostaticsafety cutout and a minimum environment tem rature control device whichare prefera 1y embodied in a single piece of apparatus (2). Thisapparatus is made up primarily of four thermostatic blades mounted on asin 10 base and having their metals or thermal e ements arranged in thesame order.

The purpose'of the voltage control device is to initiate the starting ofan en ine-gener- 7 ator unit to supply current to t e battery when thevoltage of the latter falls to a predetermined value and to interruptthe charging operation when the voltage attains a predetermined highvalue; that of the thermostatic safety cut-out is to interrupt the suply of current to the starting motor in t e event the engine fails tostart and to break the main circuits nerally under abnormal conditions;and t at of the environment temperature. control device is to'initiate'the operation of the en e for self-heat whenever the surroun iiigtemperature in below a predetermined exceptional and undesirableminimum. It will be understood, however, that the present invention isof application to system wherein these general functions areaccomplished in other ways or wherein no full equivalent is found, forexample, wherein the environment temperature control device is omitted.

3rd. An ignition apparatus (3) so arranged that it will function on avoltage between the limits at which the battery 18 to be maintained. 100

4th. A generatonengine unit (4) the generator part of which hassufiicient energy to crank the engine roperlymwhen 88 a motor connecteto the ttery, and w '01: will deliver the proper current when dl'lV6l1 Iby the engine as a generator.

5th. A polarized relay (5) for rendering the thermostatic safety cut-outinoperative except when current flows from the batter; to the generatoracting as a motor to cran the engine.

6th. A ma-in contactor .or switch (6 which is adapted to connect thebattery with the engine and to supply current to the ignition circuit.g. a

In accordance with the present invention, I associate with theabove-mentioned elements a carburcter. heater of such nature that thefuel mixture is heated under the conditions heretofore stated. Theactual construction of the heater is, of course, subject to widevariation, but I refer to arrange the part in the manner iagrammaticallyshown in Fig. 2 wherein 100 indicates a p lea sup lysuch as the chem r101 wherein the fueFis'maintained at about the level of the line 102, byany desired means (not shown). From the passage 100, the fuel flows pastthe regulating valve 103 and thro h the passage 104 to the well 105wherein the resistance coil or heater 106 extends below the, normallevel of the fuel, the upper end of said well being restricted more orless in its communication with the atmosphere by the valve 107 which isoperated by the thermostat 108. The rich mixture of fuel and air derivedfrom the well is drawn through the mixture passage 109 the groove 110and ports 111 to e the main e passage 1 engine through the main mixtureassage 114. Under conditions of relative y high valve 107 opens to arelatively rge extent as compared to its opening when the temperature isrelatively low, eonsa uently the mixture supplied the air su plyentering 13 and flows to the engine is automatically rendered richer asthe temperature falls.

The co-ordination and operation of the various parts may be more fullypointed out, it being understood that the battery is connected to thepower consuming devices, for example, the lights 10, through the medium0 the conductors 11-.12, the blades 1314 of a double pole serviceswitch, the conductors 1516, and the fuses 17--18.

Normal thermostat heati circuit, "voltage within proper its,

Assumin that the voltage of the battery (I) is.wit the limits to whichthe low vo tage thermostat blade 21 and the high voltage thermostatblade 22 are adjusted, say 102 volts and 122 volts in the event thepower consuming devices are of the 110 volt type, and that the armatureof the polarized re 8311(5) is in counterclockwise position, currentwill flow from the n u positive pole of the battery through'the con uctor 1113- to a source of fuel venturi 112 where it.

15, the conductor 24, the contact 25 of the polarized relay (5), thecontact 26, and the conductor 27 to the blade21 through the winding 28of the thermostat blade 28 and the conductor 29-l2 back to the battery.

) A The heating coil or windin 28 is thus connected directl across theattery terminals and heats the lads 28 more or less according as thebattery volta e is high or low. Hi battery voltage wifi cause blade 28to heated above normal and thus deflected towards blade 22 and lowbattery volta results in a subnormal temperature of t 0 blade 28 which,causes it to be deflected towards blade 21.

Voltage low, thermostat directing current through mai'n' ccntactorwinding and generator field.

The voltage in the battery dropping to the permissible minimum (102 inthe case stated), the thermostat b ads 28 makes contact with the blade21, and a flow of current takes place from the positive pole of thebattery to blade 21, as above described, thence through blade 28,conductor 31, the winding 32 of the'relay or main contactor (6), theconductor 33, field 34 of the go erator (4), and the conductor 161412back to the negative side of, the battery, thereby exciting the field ofthe generator and energizing contactor winding '32 which attracts thearmature 36 to establish the following conditions. e

Field circuit after main contacto'r or relay operates.

5), and a to the negative side of the battery as already described.

It will be observed that this circuit 'ves an alternate ath for thecurrent w ich travels through contact 25 and thermostat blades '2128;therefore should the wound blade 28 be withdrawn from contact with theblade 21 or the circuit be broken at 25, rupture of the generator fieldcurrent will not result.

Ignition Current from the positive side of the batlery also passes fromthe bar 36 through the contact 40, conductor 41, breaker 42, primarycoil 43, resistance unit or coil 44 and conductor 2 912 to the negativeside of the. battery, and acts on the secondary coil 45 and spark plug46. If the engine from which it passes to th .side of the the relaywinding 37, bar armature 36,

the conductor 115 to the .tlirough contact 70, conductor 71-33,generator and associated arts are. in normal perating condition, t eignition will be 1D position to-cau'se the operation of the engine onthe latter being cranked.

Armature circuit and safety cut-cut The current flows at the same timefrom the bar 36 through the contact 50 and conductor 51, throu h thefurcations of the blade 52 of the tiermal safety cut-out device,conductor 53, armature 54 of the generator (4), and conductor 16 to' thenegative battery. This circuit connecting thermostat blade 52, andgenerator armature 54 in series with the battery, is shown in heavylines in Fig. 1 and may be termed the charging circuit. Relay winding37, bar armature 36, and thermostat blade 52, being connected betweenthe positive poles of the battery 1 and generator 54, are said to be inthe positive side of the charging circuit.

The field 34 having previously been excited, as explained heretofore,the current passing through .thearmature '54 causes it to act as amotor, cranking the engine to which .it is attached.

The current flowing poses, however, swin the armature 25' .of thepolarized relay 5) clockwise, to cause the contact (carried thereby andinsulated therefrom at 61) to touch the rigid back contact 62, andthereby send current from the bar 36 through contact 40, conductor 64,contacts '6062, conductor to the winding 66 of thermostat blade 52, enegative side of the battery through the conductor 29--12. At the sametime current is directed throu h heater I06, whereby the fuel passing tothe engine is heated, and thence through the conductor 116-12 back tothe battery. Winding 66 and heater 106 are thus connected in parallelwith one another across the terminals of the battery.

The bifurcated thermostat element 52 is of course heated throu h thewinding 66, and approaches the over an ing contact 70, which ismechanically and e ectrically connected to the high voltage blade 22. Ifthe generator should be driven as a motor for more than a predeterminedtime, say one minute, the element 52 will make contact with the contact70, in which case current wilh flow from the positive side of formotoring purthe battery through coil 37 of the polarized relay andarmature or bar 36 and one side of the bifurcated blade 52 on thepositive side of the chargin circuit, and thence igh volta old 34 and tothe ne Inasmuch as t is circuit conductor 16'1412 of the battery.

is in parallel with the winding 32 of the blade 22.

tive side main contactor. (6), and is of relatively small resistance,current will be diverted from the Battery charged to nmmz'mm.

automatically disconnected.

Should the engine become self-operative before the safety cut-outoperates as above described, the dynamo-electric machine (4),functioning as a generator, willcause a reversal of current in thechargin circuit, so.

that current will then flow from t e dynamo electric machine (4) throughbar armature 36 and winding 37 of polarized relay (5) to char e thebattery. Such reversal of current in winding 37 causes armature 25' toswin in a counter-clockwise direction back to its original position,thereby breaking the circuits through contacts 6062 to heater 106 andwinding 66 of the safety cutout device, and at the same timereestablishin the original thermostat heating circuit t rough contacts25-26 from positive side of the battery through heating coil 28' onthermostat blade 28 to the negative side of the battery. The armature25' remains in its counter-clockwise position during the entire timethat the dynamo-electric machine operates as a generator, and thuswindin 28' of thermostat blade 28 is connec across the battery while thebattery is being charged. When throu h the chargin o eration the batterysha have reached the desired maximum voltage, throu h winding 28' willattain such value that t e temperature produced thereb will cause'theblade 28 to approach and nally effect a contact with the blade 22.

When this takes place, the current departthe current ing from thepositive side of the charg- System ing circuit at contact 31', passesthrough conductor 31, to the wound volta e control blade 28, to andthrough the big volta blade 22, conductor 71-33, generator fie d 34,and-conductor 1614-12 to the negative side of the batte The current isthus diverted from the winding 32 of the main contactor (6); ittherefore de-energizcs, and permits the bar armature 36 to fall afivayfrom the contact 50, thereby openmg t e disconnect-ingthe batterv fromthe generator. Falling awe of the bar armature as described openst eengine ignition circuit at contact 40 thereby causing the engine tostop, and also opens the control circuits connected to contact 31'.

When the charging circuit is thus broken in response to the state ofcharge of the battery, it will be observed that the armature chargingcircuit at this point and.

run until the blade 28 connects with the high voltage blade 22,7as willbe readily erative to move the vol amo-electric machine (4) becameoperative as a generator to-charge the battery, and the contacts 25--26-remain closed. The. thermostat heating circuit is thus connected acrossthe termmals of the battery andthe winding '28' remains o 28 intocontact with the low-voltage blade 21 whenever the battery voltage fallsto a predetermined low point,lwhereby to again set the engine inoperation to charfidthe battery the manner already descrl Minimumcmziromrwnt temperature control In the event the environment temperature were i'mitted to fall, too low, the system. 'miggfb fail to startor m' ht be-. come inefliclent through-any one of oral causes, such, forexample, as the failure of the fuel to pro erly' vaporiz e,'the conalingof the 000 .oil or other liquid or the engine, or the'freezing andconsequent destruction or impairin of the battery. Moreover, even wheredoes not take place, the internal resistance of a battery-increasesrapidly as the temperature falls, and'it becomes desirable, therefore,where the likelihood of objectionably low temperature exists, toprovide. for starting up the engine whenever the temperature falls to aminimum redetermined, safe point, so that the resulting engine heat maserve to maintain the immediate surroun in above the danger line'.

is is accomplished in the present case by providing a rigid ortemperature-independent contact 85, adapted to .co-operate with theblade 21at the predetermined. minimum tem erature to. complete theinitial starting circuit through the main eont'actor winding andgenerator field as follows:

. from the positive side of the battery through conductor 11-43-15,contact 25, contact 26, conductor 27, blade 21, contact 85, blade 86,conductor 31, winding 32, conductor 33, generator field 34, andconductor -16-14 -12 to the negative side of the battery, whereupon theengine' will start in the manner heretofore described and will continueto understood from the fore mg.

In this operation it will be noticed that current is supplied the heater106 and finally cut oil therefrom in the same eral manner heretoforeoutlined with re i' ence to the starting throughthe-medium of thevoltage control ap aratus; i. e., the heater is heated only during theperiod in which the dynamo-electric machine operates as a motor to startthe engine and the heater circontrol bla e.

that is, when the dynamo-electric machine operates as a 'gener'ator tocharge the batery, as'heretofore dwcribed Manual starting circuit In theevent ,the system is disconnected through the operation of thesafetyicut out thermostat '52, the armature 25' will be left inclockwise position as is more fully explained in the above identifiedaplication; and the circuits thus far describes contain no means wherebthe engine may again be manually started (except that the use'r .mightmanually act directly on the arif ture to swingthe latter) somethingwhich is desirable for obvious reasons, particularlly when the failureis due to lack of fuel. t is, therefore, advisable to provide forconveniently manually starting the dynamoelectric machine as a motor tocrank the engine, after which the volta e control blade 28 will contact.with the high voltage blade 22 to cause the dis-connection of thesystem, as an incident to which the armature remains in counterclockwiseposition. One inex .complishmg the desired pur ose consists in a pushbotton or switch (8 connected to the positive side of the batteryby theconductor 95 and adapted to completes field and main contactor windingcircuit through the conductor 86, conductor 31, main con; tactor winding32 conductor 33, generator field 84, and conductor 161412 to thenegative side of the battery, whereupon the bar 36 closes upon its.contactsto complete the charging circuit and the ignition circuit, aswill be readily understood. Immediately when this takes lace, currentflowing from the battery to t e generator for motoring purposes insuresthe positioning of the arm'- ature 25' at the limit of its clockwisemovement and current passing through-the bar 36, the conductor 64,contacts 62 and conductor -115, heats the elementlOb. The current thussupplied the heater is ultimately cut-off in the manner heretoforeindicated. c

In other words, the heater is effective for vaporizing the fuel wheneverthejcurrent flows from the battery to the generator for motoringpurposes. The safety cut-outcircuit through winding 66 is also closed atthe same time as the circuit through the heating element 106. It isobvious that the minimum environment temperature control features mightin some instances be omitted; likewise the manual starting switch (8),since the armature 25' might, be thrown to counterclockwise position byhand; and the; actual details of the several parts ma be cuit is brokenwhen the motoring ceases, In the present state of the art it is of nsiveand suitable means for ate-- course somewhat a matter of choice whetherto employ starting and generating ets of the single unit type such asshown (wherein a single rotor operates both for starting and forgenerating) or of the double unit type wherein the starting device isseparate from the generator, both types being well known in automotiveservice. The particular mechanism shown may therefore be reded ascomprising two electrical maes one of'w ich operates as a starting motorand the other of which acts as a generator.

I claim:

1. An electricity generating and storage system comprising a battery,a'hydro-carbon engine, a generator adapted to operate as a motor tocrank the en 'ne and to be driven thereby to char t e battery, anelectric heater for the gi el assing to the engine, and automatic meansor controlling the operation of the generator and en ine in accordancewith the electrical condition of the battery to maintain the latterwithin predetermined limits of voltage, means for initiating theoperation of the generator to crank t e engine when the environmenttemperature falls to a predetermined minimum and for substantiallysimultaneously initiatin the flow of current to the heater to heat theatter.

2. In combination, including means for fuel mixture a hydro-carbonengine supplying an explosive to, a starting motor therefor, a supplycircuit for the motor including a storage battery, means res onsive tothe condition of charge of the battery for controlling said circuit toinitiate the operation of the en 'ne, and thermostatic means forautomaticsfily initiating the operation of the engine at a predeterminedtemperature with a fuel mixture predetermined for the said temperature.

3. In an apparatus of the kind described, in combination, an engineincluding means for supplying an explosive mixture thereto, a startingmotor therefor, a supply circuit for the motor, and means for connectingthe motor with the suppl circuit at intervals varying inversely wit thetemperature of the apparatus, said means having provisions forautomatically varying the explosive mixture supplied to the engineaccording to the temperature of the apparatus.

4. In an apparatus of the kind described, in combination, an engineincluding means for supplying an explosive mixture thereto, a startingmotor therefor, a supply circuit for the motor, and thermostatic meansfor connecting the motor with the supply circuit at intervals varyinginversely with the temperature of the apparatus, said means havingprovisions for automatically var ing the explosive mixture supplied to te engine according to the temperature of the ap aratus.

n testimony whereof I aflix my 31 JAMES B. REP

ature. LE.

